Page 44 - Studio International - March 1967

their form worked out in greater detail. A strong shaft of staring hard at a word—if we stare long enough the mean-
sunlight would lift a section out of context. Everything ing of the word disappears and only the letters remain,
was in continuous flux. In most painters light is used to which take on a new meaning of related forms and lines.
reveal the form in one moment of time. Bomberg used it Like the Action Painters, Bomberg always emphasized
to play a role which was continuous and active, revealing the physical character of painting, the mark defining both
facet after facet of the object, contradicting the morning's space and form, yet he would not have agreed with the
work against the evening, the summer against the winter. Action Painters that the sheer activity with the materials
In working from the model he always encouraged the would produce an image or release sub-conscious impulses
students to work in a variety of lights; it didn't matter if . . . art is a conscious, not subconscious, activity. Space is
the sun came into the room, and often we worked on into not an abstraction, it is contained by the forms and
the dusk and even when it was dark. In this way we related to the self as an active agent. But the appearance
gained complete understanding of the form. We used of things could not give a sense of the reality either.
light to reveal those changes in the related directions of Bomberg regarded the eye itself as a stupid organ and
the form, which are the only factors which differentiate given to lying. Of all the senses, touch was all-important.
one form from another and give each its peculiar charac- The contradictions between sight and touch resulted in
ter. We worked towards what Bomberg called the 'spirit a heightened sense of reality. R. G. Collingwood has
in the mass'. pointed out that Cezanne was right when he said that
These are ambiguous words, and it is almost impossible painting can never be a visual art . . . a man paints with
to give a further definition in words, although the mean- his hands and not with his eyes. What one paints is what
ing was always very clear to those working within the can be painted, and what can be painted must stand in
problem in paint. We can take a clue from Berkeley, direct relation to the muscular activity of painting it.
who said that material objects do not exist only in mind as We see things flat. We cannot see distance and space.
idealism proposes but that, on the other hand, material The canvas looks flat and it is flat. But the painter is con-
objects have no independent existence of their own. cerned with a reality that is not flat. Every mark that
They depend upon mind and the senses. He goes on to goes on to the canvas splits and penetrates the surface,
say (and incidentally this is one of the reasons why we creating a space and form, giving meaning to something
paint), that if the essential characteristics of material that is no longer paint and canvas.
objects is to be perceived, the essential characteristics of With Bomberg's paintings we cannot 'see' the meaning,
ourselves, spirits, is to perceive. we must look for meaning. If we look, Bomberg will teach
To feel the mass the object had first to be divested of all us to feel, and this, after all, is the highest function of the
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the trappings and associations of everyday life. It is like painter . . . he cannot give us more.